If I were smart, I'd write a five paragraph eassy on how even though he scoffed at hearing about the Traitor's Tusk the fact that Dante remembered every detail about it is because when he was a child and too sickly to train like the soldiers all he did was work on his memory and ability to recall information.
So I wrote a little story some weeks ago. It barely was over 300 words but I go back to reread like a dummy and now I see why people say write for yourself.
Cause that DanEi kiss was very much for me.
I still think about Dante pulling Eiden into a kiss from the Floresan room four (TдT)
So anyway I got that out my system and now I'm thinking about having the rest of the clan get kisses from Dante. But there's one problem
I'm fucking stupid _(._.)_
I have some ideas for some clan members: Blade Yakumo Quincy Garu Kuya
But like I can't think of how to get the rest to kiss him.
(It shouldn't be that hard Kazzie)
But! It has to make sense! For them to kiss Dante there has to be a reason why they're around him for the kiss to happen!
Okay it is important! For my peace of mind! I don't want to repeat the same thing everytime! So to speak.
(ノ｀Д´)ノ彡┻━┻
cough
Anyway yeah that's a thing I'm working on.
(pointedly not looking at the Bottom!Dante I started 5000 years ago)
Soon when Cowboy Dante gets another rerun my Dante collection will be complete . . .
Honestly I'm amazed I some how have as many Dante as I do. I mean my first Dante alt was his Christmas one back when I started playing before I locked in on focusing on getting Blade I pulled with whatever I had to on new banners.
He just sort of came without me trying. ╮(╯▽╰)╭
Anyway Cowboy Dante had his rerun some time ago so I'll be a while before they dump him on some banner before his solo rerun. Just gotta wait.
i’ve been thinking about what a nu carnival time travel fix-it might look like (the thoughts happened mostly before chapter 16, i should preface so no huey stuff (although would any huey stuff really be a fix-it if it would eliminate the existence of eiden??)). anyways. the thing with nu carnival is there aren’t an abundance of ‘key points’ or like Singular Terrible Events. things tend to happen in a slow collapse that are hard to circumvent.
for example, you can’t really ‘fix-it’ quincy because his big problem is that everyone he has ever loved (plus, in his eyes, will ever love in the future) will die before him. and the cause of that problem, him becoming a clan member to defend his tribe, is difficult to get around. even now, we can tell that he stands by that decision, to some extent, because unlike other older clan members, he hasn’t chosen to die. (i think maybe i’d read it as a sort of what-if path rather than a fix-it? a bittersweet thing where he died surrounded by family that loved him, lauded for his feats of strength and protection.)
(in going through the process of rethinking what might be a ‘fix-it’ option for everyone, i’m realizing it might just be eiden giving any given clan member a friend while they struggled through their lives. because really, the biggest absence most of them have is a friend that could stand by their side. anyways, that’s not what i initially thought of— so i’m tucking that away for another time.)
ok. so. right. thinking about a Big Event that caused a Lot of Cascading Stuff that could be changed via time travel (i love time travel). who would be sent back? what would the event be?
well… (<- guy who has a very strong bias), there’s the riot that killed dante’s parents…
the thing is, the initial issue is still there: the riot was caused by numerous decisions from dante’s parents that they really stood by! like dante, they had very strong convictions that would be difficult to sway, even with the interference of a time traveller.
if dante was sent back in time into his puny kid body before the riot happened, he probably couldn’t convince his parents to fight off bandits or not waste money on his happiness. like, they might fortify the palace or make contingency plans for their safety, but they wouldn’t stop being Really Committed Pacifists in the Bandit-Death Desert.
so like… what would dante do? he’d be in a very similar situation to his original kid self where no one would listen to him and he had no power.
well, he’d try to get back to his original solaria.
though there are numerous things he’d probably like to change, his ultimate commitment is to his Solaria. it’s what he built, what he knows, and what he wants to protect. there’s no telling what changing the past would bring and there’s the very real chance that this is all just… magical shenanigans.
it’s kind of obvious that no one in solaria can or will help him. his parents love him, which is a problem, because that means they won’t let him leave the palace (an age-old problem). and dante is still Super Sick.
but, hey, he stopped being ill after he went through the trials of the elemental spirit of fire so… that’s one piece of the puzzle
and! he has a rough idea of the people who could potentially help him: the other clan members. the level of sorcery that this time travel nonsense would take is probably beyond the average magic user, so clan members are his best bet. plus, there’s a chance he wasn’t the only one impacted by whatever is going on.
(this is also my ploy to make it a group adventure…)
so, like, dante sneaks out with a horse and, with a whole lot of difficulty, manages to get to and pass the trials of the elemental spirit of fire. (i imagine it’s easier because he knows where he’s going. it’s potentially harder because there’s no riot to distract the bandits around town. cest la vie. the trials are probably as difficult as before but!! i imagine the content would change because time travelling dante doesn’t have the same concerns baby dante had.)
dante running off leaves solaria in a panic (despite the note that dante thoughtfully left behind) and dante in better health with his trial markings.
so where does dante go from there? aster, maybe, since he knows that aster is connected to the grand sorcerer, even if eiden isn’t around…
i didn’t actually come up with a plan for how dante got back to the present or what sent him back.
in my initial planning, i thought it would be very funny for dante to go to quincy. quincy’s a good option because he’s strong (dante kind of needs that) and he’s reliable (unlike many of the other clan members).
the idea of pre-eiden quincy (incredibly tired + depressed) having to deal with an pompous, demanding baby foreign prince is a fun image, esp. because its so baffling to quincy.
looking at the map of klein… dante probably picks up blade and garu (and maybe even gramps!) while he passes through the dead zone? he’s probably pretty blatant about picking up clan members. it would be difficult to override huey’s ‘orders’ to blade, but maybe blade could be convinced to come on the basis that it was ‘for the grand sorcerer’? and gramps would probably not leave this rambunctious child on a horse to travel alone.
man… and baby karu would still be fully hidden in garu… (also i wonder how gramps feels about potential future knowledge that garu’s ‘master’ actually does come to be?)
so blade + garu (+ gramps(?)) and then quincy.
kuya probably comes along uninvited because its not his circus, not his monkeys, but he is an intrigued audience member.
from there maybe they put together some puzzle pieces about needing all the clan members?
tbh, they probably bullshit to get baby yakumo along, if his grandma and grandpa even let him go with the strange group of people. gramps probably does a lot to help smooth things over.
a big bid in their favor is that they know about yakumo’s gem and tell him about it? let him know that he’s not so alone in the world…
aster and morvay are probably the MVPs in letting the group progress in their research. dante leverages his knowledge about aster and the grand sorcerer Super Hard. plus, aster and morvay wouldn’t let any remotely trustworthy lead about their master fall through.
i think aster would maybe help them get into the sorcerer’s trials? for the library or w/e…
and that’s how they meet baby olivine
laying out the ages:
dante: ~8-10 years old
garu: ~15-16 years old or ~5-7 years old(?) (he doesn’t get a younger looking sprite in his flashback since they just use n-r rarity sprites for those. and he doesn’t act much younger? so i’m leaning towards him being pretty similar to how we see him in canon) (of course, i might be fudging the timeline a lot to even have him be around at all instead of in kolt’s clutches. ah well…)
yakumo: ~9-11 years old (he have a kid form iirc? and that’s how his grandparents picked him up)
edmond: ~11-13 years old
olivine: ~12-15 years old
and then this is fun because of Conflict!! dante doesn’t really know much about the past of the others to have any real insight on them during these time travel shenanigans. BUT! he does know about olivine cutting himself which makes things Interesting
honestly, i think it would be super cute if olivine acted as their guide during the group’s visit because he has a gemstone? and he also turns out to be pretty helpful because he’s pretty deep into technical and theoretical magic.
and then they whisk olivine away for their group adventure because 1) he’s a clan member and 2) they need his brain. (dante’s pretty informed on essence and elemental spirits but i wouldn’t say magic is his forte)
and then, finally, around the water territory, they meet up with rei, who comes to them because what are garu and gramps even doing there??? and then we get some semi-rare olivine and rei discussion as they discuss The Situation…
it’s just so fun to see how different these half-formed versions of everyone are before the present…
- quincy’s so much sadder (but hey! he still has topper… who is not named topper yet)
- blade is still quirky but much harder to communicate with (unless it’s with other members of the old guard who are kind of used to him)
- yakumo’s a nervous baby (but maybe has his anxiety less in-grained in him? less convinced that all these people like him would reject him thoroughly? esp since they came to see him)
- edmond is still prickly but more transparently because he’s been hurt before? i feel like he makes pretty fast friends with the other kids (he shores up yakumo’s shyness (little knight behavior), he responds well to dante’s taciturn but earnest nature), and well… garu is garu).
- kuya is probably pretty mean but less mean than i would expect, esp w/ the promise of curiosities and the novelty of (ahem) getting the band back together.
- rei is similarly intrigued by the gathering of clan members and is even more intrigued by dante’s issue and the possibility of time travel… (he probably has some things he’d like to time travel about but the canon i’ve read for him so far is vague enough that i couldn’t pin it down). (im also maybe fudging his timeline bc idk if he’d even be in klein with father 10-13 years ago…)
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